What will 2017 hold???

So before you know it, it's 2017. It felt like just last week we were getting ready for Spring so quick did 2016 go. But it was a good year with 138 species of bird being recorded at the site. Some of these hadn’t been seen at the reserve before or had been seen, but not for a long while, such as the bearded tits, which according to Paul Holness was last seen around 8 years ago. We had a good year when it came to osprey sightings with several views of them flying over during the August period as the birds begin their journey south.

We had great success with our kingfishers too with at least four broods being raised at Lackford. One brood in particular were very special as they nested in the bank outside the visitor centre, something that has never happened before.

One of our volunteers spotted a great white egret, another first for the reserve even though it didn't stop long. Well done to Joe Myers for spotting that. Also, wheatear and avocet were seen on the reserve again last year among many others. We would like to thank all our eagle eyed visitors for reporting their sightings back to the staff at the centre. Please keep it up as you are our eyes and ears out there.

So, what to look out for this year? Well as always, anything is possible and a rarity can drop in at anytime, but unless people are out looking, we will never know. Last year saw an increase of marsh harrier sightings at Lackford compared to other years and one rarity that we did get other than the long-tailed duck was the great northern diver, which only stopped on the sailing lake for 90 mins, but still it was enough.

A special year

Yes, 2017 is looking to be a special year because it's our 30th birthday! Lackford Lakes officially became a reserve back in 1987 when Bernard Tickner bought a part of the area that had been excavated by RMC (now known as Cemex). This part is now known as The Slough and sees many waders there through the seasons. Eventually, RMC stopped excavating in 2000 and gave the rest of the pits to the Trust. Since then Lackford has gone from strength to strength obtaining not one, but two SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) designations for its overwintering wildfowl and the other for its 21 species of dragonflies and damselflies that can be found here during the warmer months.

A Google Earth image of Lackford Lakes (no lakes present then) in 1945.

And how it is today, a haven for wildlife.

Regular surveys on the site are uncovering new things all the time and it is thanks to the diligence and hard work of our volunteers and staff that make Lackford what it is today, a prime nature reserve. 

Otters

As some of you may or may not know, we have been doing otter surveys at Lackford over the past year and we thought we would like to share with some trail cam footage taken of two otters found using the site.

As you can see from the first clip, the camera was the focus of their investigations. Check out the second clip to see if they were successful in pulling the camera down.

Sightings

As usual, Paul’s New Years Day bird walk was well attended despite the poor weather and 56 species of birds were spotted. Since then, in one week, that number has risen to 73 species. This is down to visitors reporting their sightings back at the visitor centre. By reporting your sightings, no matter how common you think they are, you help many other visitors to the reserve. So keep those reports coming in.

Male goldeneye at Winter hide © Ian Goodall

This past week the kingfisher has been very obliging at the visitor centre pool, the Doubke-decker and Paul’s hide. Goldeneye have been seen regularly at the Winter hide, Hawkers pool and Bess’ hide. Teal and wigeon have been reported in large numbers of over 400 each on the Slough and Long Reach. Plenty reports of goldcrest, treecreeper, nuthatch, marsh tit, coal tit and other small birds from Ash Carr. 

Male pochard © Ian Goodall

Shelduck, little egret, shoveler, gadwall, tufted duck and pochard are all being seen on the Slough and there’s the odd sighting of snipe doing in from Steggall’s hide too. Out on the field feeders on Church walk, brambling have been spotted as well as bullfinch and reed bunting. This is also a likely place to spot tree sparrows, so keep your eyes peeled.

Snipe seen at Steggall’s © Colin Robson

Goosander are still coming into roost and can usually be seen on the Slough, although this weekend a drake was spotted on Hawkers pool and Long Reach.

Goosander (male on right) © Ian Goodall

One last note to mention is that we are getting starlings coming into roost either outside the centre, or in the reeds at the Double-decker hide. However, numbers are low and not like those seen in previous years. Yet it is still a sight to behold and the best time to see this is around 3:30pm just before dusk.

 

Do you know your gulls?

Well the Iceland Gull is still showing on the sailing lake and Peter Rutt took this photo of the gull in the gull roost. But can you tell which one is the Iceland Gull?

Where’s the Iceland Gull?

The answer will be posted at the end of the blog, no cheating! Also spotted on the sailing lake amongst the 15,000 strong gull roost this week, have been several Yellow-legged gulls. Both these and the Iceland gull have proved to be quite an attraction of late.

Half-term activities

As many of you will know, it's been half-term this week and we've had many activities here at Lackford, designed to educate and occupy the youngsters whilst away from school.

One of the most popular events, and one to get fully booked early, is the bird box building event.  

Great fun building the boxes.

And everyone who build a box got to take it home for their garden.

Many hands make light work.

 We also had nature trails for the youngsters to follow with questions and answers

 And there was also the opportunity to make your own bird feeders using pine cones, lard and bird seed, which was also popular.

Messy, but fun

 On Friday, the end of half-term was brought to an end with 27 Young Wardens between 10-15 Years helping with the coppicing of Alder at Lackford.

The Young Wardens get to work

All were rewarded with a tasty jacket potato for lunch

Away from the reserve

Unusually this week, we're going to drag you off to Shiplake, Oxfordshire where artist Wendy Nicholson resides. Wendy visited Lackford whilst on holiday and was lucky enough to get to see one of our Kingfishers. Wendy was so inspired by what she saw, that she created this beautiful textile Kingfisher

Textile Kingfisher by Wendy Nicholson

We would like to thank Wendy for sending this picture in and allowing us to share it with you. You can see more of Wendy's amazing work here.

The unveiling 

As many of you now know, Hughes Electrical of Stowmarket have very kindly donated us the large 42" Flatscreen LED for visitors to watch our wildlife cameras on. Well this week, Richard Whymark from Hughes came down to present us with the plaque which will hang proudly next to the TV. The press (Bury Free and EADT) were also there to mark the occasion and BBC Radio Suffolk also came down to talk to us about our wildlife cameras.

Visitor assistant Hawk Honey accepts the plaque from Richard Whymark.

For those of you who missed the radio interview, you can hear it again here and just move the slider along to 2:41:40.

Sightings

It's been a busy week on the sightings front with the welcome news that after spending their winter around the coast of Britain, Great Crested Grebe's have come back ready for spring at Long reach and the Sailing lake.

The Bittern made a surprise appearance in the week by walking about out in the open, away from its well camouflaged backdrop of reeds. Ken and Jane Rowe were there to catch the occurrence on camera

Bittern out in the open at Steggall's © Jane Rowe

The Little Egret has also been spotted several times around the reserve.

Little Egret © Rich Berry

Little Egret © Jane Rowe

Gold crest, Bullfinch and Siskin have been spotted along Ash Carr. Tree Sparrows have been sighted on the field feeders along Church Walk, a lovely bird to see.

The Kingfisher has been very active this week on the visitor centre pond, being sighted every day this week.

Kingfisher © Jane Rowe

Reed Buntings were spotted at the Double-decker hide and Goldeneye have been showing at the Sailing lake along with 14 Shoveller ducks. Snipe at the Slough and Buzzard's  have been seen overhead.

Don't forget to check our sightings board in the visitor centre when we're open for latest sightings, or to add your own sightings. The board is sited next to our interactive map which is updated regularly to where the latest sightings happen.

Our interactive map with photo bird counters denoting sightings.

As you can see, sightings are marked with photo counters, we currently need some more counters. So if you have any pictures of Siskins, Tree Creeper, Great Crested Grebe and Sparrowhawk that we could use, then please forward them to us at lackford.centre@suffolkwildlifetrust.org

The answer

So, do you know your gulls? At the start we asked you if you could spot the Iceland Gull from the picture, lets see if you were right?

Iceland Gull circled

A busy week on the reserve

It’s been a busy week on the reserve, especially for our volunteers who have been working hard in the chilly outdoors. Many of our followers may have noticed a post on our Facebook page recently, relating to the felling of some White Poplar trees. 

Giles tackles one of the White poplars.

Some commented that it was a sad thing to see and that we shouldn’t cut down trees at all. So we thought we’d take this opportunity to explain the reasons why we have to do this. 

How the trees got here

The trees were originally planted by farmers when the site was farmland. They planted the trees to create a windbreak to protect crops and to stop top soil being blown from their fields.

Aerial view of Lackford Lakes in 1945. Nothing but farmland © Google Earth

Why did they have to go?

The trees are considered to be of Low Conservation Value, which basically means that they do not support a wide variety of wildlife. The shade that they also created was impacting the fen area, where we once had over 1000 orchids. Last year in 2014 the orchid count was less than 20. So by felling these trees, we’re creating sunny open wet fen habitat, which is not only good for the early marsh orchids, but a variety of other plants too, including water mint, mouse ear, etc.

The new wetland area will be more structurally diverse with wet boggy areas and piles of deadwood (habitat piles), wet grassland, standing and fallen deadwood. All this increases the biodiversity of an area, which means more invertebrates move in, which then encourages the birds to move in too.

What will happen to the felled trees?

All the wood from the trees will be used to create these valuable habitat piles, which are so important to insects. In nature today, a lot of dead wood is used for timber or firewood, which makes it hard for invertebrates who feed on this resource. By creating these habitat piles, the insects can be left to eat away in peace until a birdie finds it for a tasty snack.

Of the 100 Poplars on site, we have only felled 40 trees which were of poorer stock. So all is not lost and the work that has been carried out by the reserves team will only further improve the quality of Lackford’s biodiversity making it a richer habitat for all wildlife and those who watch it.

Other work on the reserve

Our volunteers have also been busy coppicing on the reserve this week. 

Willow coppicing begins

Their work encourages the willow and hazel to have new growth and the whips that are collected go towards creating fencing around the reserve and at other sites.

The stumps will regrow more whips in the coming years.

The harvested whips which will be used to create natural fencing.

Jacket potato’s are a welcome feast on a chilly day.

The hard working volunteers, well done!

Whilst busy coppicing, one eagle eyed volunteer (Daisy May Bodewes) spotted and took a photo of this beautiful fungus she found, Scarlet Elf Cup (which has many different names apparently).

Scarlet Elf Cup photographed by volunteer Daisy May Bodewes

More fungus

Another volunteer who also spotted some wonderful fungi whilst working at Lackford is Joe Myers. Joe was part of our new ‘Guide in the Hide’ team during our themed weekend on Winter Ducks which was attended by many and enjoyed by all!

Thanks Joe for sharing these wonderful images.

Sightings

We’ve had quite a few sightings this week with a bit of a rarity being spotted and possibly a first winter record for a Breckland site. The sighting was that of an Iceland Gull, which was spotted in the gull roost on the sailing lake at about 3pm on Saturday.

Other sightings include quite a few raptors across the reserve, Kestrel, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and a Merlin was seen on Saturday flying across the driveway. A Red Kite was also seen and was first spotted by our ‘Guide in the Hide’ at the Slough. He radioed it through to our Visitor Centre where staff there were able to see it and point it out to visitors as it drifted in gliding circles, carried by the wind, over the car park.

Red Kite © Judith Wakelam

Goosander, Teal, Pochard, Goldeneye, Gadwall, Shelduck, Lapwing, Little Egret, Snipe are also showing across various parts of the reserve. It’s always best to go into the visitor centre when you arrive to find out where the latest sightings are as they do tend to move around a bit.

Starlings still continue to murmurate over the car park from about 5pm but numbers vary from a few hundred to around 3000, which was the case on Sunday.

Bullfinches, Siskins, Tree Creeper, Wren and Goldcrests are being seen on regular occasions along Ash Carr, but once again, check in the centre first as the Bullfinches have also been spotted by the Sailing Lake path, Orchid Hide and Church Walk. 

The Kingfisher has also been spotted on many occasions around the reserve from a fighting pair on the Slough, speeding across Plover lake, near the hide at Steggall’s and a female seen several times at the visitor centre and Bernard’s Hide. We did have a visitor who caught the Kingfisher on camera with a frog in its beak. He was going to email it to us, but as of yet, we’ve yet to receive the email. When we do get it, we’ll share it with you right here. In the meantime, if you have a photo you’d like to share with us, please email it to hawk.honey@suffolkwildlifetrust.org with your name and we’ll be glad to add it to our blog.

Also spotted at the visitor centre this weekend, although only briefly, was a Grey Wagtail.

On the mammal camera in the middle of the night, we've had Field voles, Wood mouse and a new visitor is a Shrew.

Another unusual sighting and one worthy of our #LackfordPhotoChallenge hashtag is a photo by one of our regular visitors Rich Berry. He snapped this Goldeneye eating a rather unusual meal, a Signal Crayfish

A tasty snack © Rich Berry

If you get a photo this month of a duck doing something unusual or an action photo, then share it with us on our Facebook page or on Twitter with the hashtag #LackfordPhotoChallenge.

On the radio

BBC Radio Suffolk will be interviewing our staff member and Visitor Assistant, Hawk Honey tomorrow (Tuesday 17th Feb) around 8:40am. He'll be chatting about our new wildlife cameras and other stuff, so be sure to listen and spread the word.

That's it for now, keep those photos coming in and do pop into the visitor centre and say hi.

Birds a plenty!

The reserve got to see some snow this week, which created a lovely wintery scene for many photographers brave enough to face the chilly elements. 

Snow covered Lackford

One of these brave souls was Adi Sheppard who managed to grab this lovely shot of a Song Thrush with an all important snack that it had managed to find despite the snow covered ground. Thanks for sharing Adi.

Song thrush taken by Adi Sheppard

Some of you may remember last weeks photo of a Yellow-legged gull seen on the sailing lake. This gull is just one of many thousand gulls roosting on the sailing lake, which really is a sight to see. Jo Sweetman posted a photo to our Facebook page of the gull roost.

Gulls coming in to roost on the sailing lake. ©Jo Sweetman

Jo managed to grab another photo of a Bullfinch, which unusually sat by the visitor centre for a good 20 minutes before flying off

Bullfinch by Jo Sweetman

The gulls are not the only birds to see in charge numbers at the moment, strangely, we still have our Starling murmuration happening outside the visitor centre. Although the numbers are not near our pre-christmas murmuration, they really are still mesmerising to watch and still draw a crowd.

On Camera

The cameras are still proving to be a hit with our visitors and wildlife too. This clip shows 5 different species visit the bird feeder post in under 2 mins.

Mike, the centre manager compiled this video of our feeder cams on our Facebook page, which shows a new visitor to the mammal cam, a vole (possibly field vole). plus much more.

Sightings

Raptors have been getting spotted at the reserve of late with our first sighting of a Red Kite.  Peregrine and Marsh Harrier have been seen over Plover lake, Sparrowhawk over the sailing lake and a Buzzard over Ash Carr. 

Also spotted at Ash Carr were a Grey Wagtail and a Tree Creeper.

Goosander's have been spotted on the Slough, Sailing lake and Plover lake, Goldeneye at the Sailing lake and Hawker pool, Little Grebe at Bess’ hide and Snipe at Slough. We still have our Bittern showing at Steggall’s and Pintail at Plover.

Bullfinches have been spotted around the reserve including the one pictured above outside the visitor centre, what better way to enjoy your hot drink and cake whilst looking at a beautiful male Bullfinch.

Don’t forget to add your sightings to our board whenever you visit, you can find the board situated inside next to the map of the reserve. The Red Kite and Peregrine bring our bird species list for Lackford up to 92 species, the list can be seen here.

Don’t forget to join in our #LackfordPhotoChallenge by getting a picture of a duck doing something different than just sitting there looking duck like. Harder than you think! Don’t feel that this is just for those who use social media either, anyone can take part, just email your photos to us here at lackford.centre@suffolkwildlifetrust.org and we’ll post them on here on the blog for you.

Wild for the Weekend

Don’t forget, next weekend sees the start of our new themed weekends, which start with Winter Ducks. There’ll be something for everyone to enjoy, including trails and spotter sheets and guides around the reserve. It’ll be running all weekend, so pop in to the visitor centre and find out more.

84 Species and counting.

Well the new year has seen lots of visitors to the lakes here at Lackford enjoying the frosty still mornings and various wildlife around the site.

Lovely crisp mornings at Lackford.

We've also had some wet weather of late too, but don't let that stop you from looking for signs of wildlife on the reserve. This week, the footprints of a particularly large mammal was found in the mud on the reserve.

Red Deer slots

Many people have been visiting the reserve to start off their years birding list and Lackford is the ideal place to get this started with 84 species of bird recorded so far. Some are easy to find such as the Gulls in their 15,000 strong roost on the sailing lake, our STILL murmuring Starlings in the evening whose numbers are down to about 3,500 (but still impressive), or Egyptian Geese. Then there are those regular, but not always guaranteed, visitors such as the Kingfisher and Bittern and then there are the much harder to find species such as our Tree Sparrows, Water Rail and Brambling. Good for those who like a challenge!

Egyptian geese in flight

Mistle Thrush finds a tasty snack

Lapwing have been spotted on the reserve in numbers around 500 this week as well as a large amount of Gadwall, 146.

Lapwing

Gadwall on the centre pond.

Watching wildlife

A good time to visit the reserve at this time of year to see some wildlife has to be the afternoon. A nice walk around visiting the various hides, you will get to see some of the Goosander from Bill's hide on the Slough, Egrets have been seen flying around the reserve too. Then you may get to see the Bittern which comes into roost around 4pm at the double-decker hide. Then watch as an influx of Starlings begin to murmurate in front of the Visitor Centre. There's so much to see here despite it being the middle of winter and as Nick of Norfolk said on Twitter:

Nick's tweet on Twitter

A big thank you goes out to Nick and all of our other members too. Without our members, none of what we do at Lackford, or our 49 other reserves, would be possible.

Goldeneye

And it's not all about birds either, the winter season provides plenty of photo opportunities such as the various fungi which can be found and with a recent report from the BBC about the huge increase in flowering plants in winter this year, some are bound to be found at Lackford.

Turkey-tail bracket fungus

Hazel catkins in the middle of winter.

Don't forget the little ones

This time of year when the overnight temperatures plummet, finding food on a regular daily basis becomes a matter of life and death for some of our smaller birds. So it's important to keep your bird feeders and bird table topped up with bird food and easy access to unfrozen water.

We have a variety of bird food for most birds for sale at Lackford in various size bags including the much loved sunflower hearts which are a vital source of energy for small birds such as tits.

A welcome visitor at bird feeders this time of year, the Long-tailed tit.

All change

As mentioned in previous blogs, there are some wonderful changes coming to Lackford this year. So that we can implement some of these changes, the Visitor Centre will be closed from Monday 19th January - Thursday 22nd, re-opening on Friday 23rd. 

We hope this doesn't cause you too much of an inconvenience.

Till next time, take care.